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Background: This paper considers energy as a social and commercial determinant of health. Stable access to clean and sustainable energy is integral for human wellbeing yet public health rarely considers its importance. Methods: Using NVivo qualitative analysis software we analysed all Australian federal, state and territory strategic energy policies covering varying periods between 2016-2030. We defined strategic policy as including the goals, objectives and strategies of the department regarding a specific area of policy responsibility. This criterion excluded documents such as operational guidelines. 36 energy-related policies were analyzed. Results: While the nature of energy supply is crucial to determining the impact of human and environmental health, our analysis showed that health and wellbeing are only rarely considered in policy. We developed a conceptual framework to guide our work linking energy policy with health. Australia's continued reliance on fossil fuels evident in the policies poses health risks, especially as climate change threatens physical and mental health. Yet health considerations were mainly absent from the policies. However, some jurisdictions (South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory [ACT]) had policies encouraging a fast move to renewables. Energy pricing was a key focus in each jurisdiction and had become highly politicalized in the past decade. Little attention was paid to equity considerations in the policies. Conclusion: Energy policy would be more health promoting if public health perspectives were considered during its development. On the basis of our policy analysis and literature review we conclude with recommendations for healthy energy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the processes of residential solar PV uptake is critical to developing planning and policy energy transition pathways. This paper outlines a novel hybrid Agent-Based-Modelling/statistical adoption prediction framework that addresses several drawbacks in current modelling approaches. Specifically, we extend the capabilities of similar previous models and incorporate empirical data, behavioural theory, social networks and explicitly considers the spatial context. We provide empirical data affecting households’ propensity to adopt, including perceptions of solar PV systems, the role of tenure and urban location. We demonstrate the approach in the context of Melbourne metropolitan region, Australia; and draw on housing approval data to demonstrate the role of housing construction in accelerating adoption. Finally, we explore the approach’s validity against real-world data with promising results that also indicate key areas for further research and improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has abundant volumes of forest residues that are a potential feedstock for supplying biomass as a renewable carbon carrier to the market. However, there remains an underutilization of this resource, even in mature bioeconomy markets. Several existing or perceived barriers can be attributed to the underdeveloped, forest-based bioeconomy in Australia. One of these is the limited understanding of feedstock supply costs. In this study, two ranking approaches were applied to identify the optimal biomass feedstock supply chain from field to conversion plant gate. A panel of experts embedded in the Australian bioeconomy were employed to first assign ranks to biomass supply chain items by cost intensity. Then, a layer of analytic hierarchical process (AHP) was used to weigh and rank various biomass supply pathways by efficiency. The results reveal that biomass extraction ranks the highest and biomass feedstock storage ranks the lowest, relative to other supply chain costs. Extracting and chipping material in the field attracted the most support from the experts in terms of efficiency, followed by transporting and chipping at the roadside and, finally, transporting and chipping at the conversion plant. This study provides insights for designers of the forest-based bioeconomy in Australia into relative cost drivers that may be applied to investment and industry decisions. It also provides a framework to support further investigations into forest biomass development and the management of biomass as a renewable carbon carrier at a time when Australia is transitioning from an energy policy focused on fossil fuels to a renewable energy strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen is fast becoming a new international "super fuel" to accelerate global climate change ambitions. This paper has two inter-weaving themes. Contextually, it focuses on the potential impact of the EU's new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on fossil fuel-generated as opposed to green hydrogen imports. The CBAM, as a transnational carbon adjustment mechanism, has the potential to impact international trade in energy. It seeks both a level playing field between imports and EU internal markets (subject to ambitious EU climate change policies), and to encourage emissions reduction laggards through its "carbon diplomacy". Countries without a price on carbon will be charged for embodied carbon in their supply chains when they export to the EU. Empirically, we focus on two hydrogen export/import case studies: Australia as a non-EU state with ambitions to export hydrogen, and Germany as an EU Member State reliant on energy imports. Energy security is central to energy trade debates but needs to be conceptualized beyond supply and demand economics to include geopolitics, just transitions and the impacts of border carbon taxes and EU carbon diplomacy. Accordingly, we apply and further develop a seven-dimension energy security-justice framework to the examples of brown, blue and green hydrogen export/import hydrogen operations, with varying carbon-intensity supply chains, in Australia and Germany. Applying the framework, we identify potential impact—risks and opportunities—associated with identified brown, blue and green hydrogen export/import projects in the two countries. This research contributes to the emerging fields of international hydrogen trade, supply chains, and international carbon diplomacy and develops a potentially useful seven-dimension energy security-justice framework for energy researchers and policy analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]